If you were using IBM Informix Dynamic Server, you would have a MONEY type which is a minor variant on the DECIMAL or NUMERIC type. It is always a fixed-point type (whereas DECIMAL can be a floating point type). You can specify a scale from 1 to 32, and a precision from 0 to 32 (defaulting to a scale of 16 and a precision of 2). So, depending on what you need to store, you might use DECIMAL(16,2) - still big enough to hold the US Federal Deficit, to the nearest cent - or you might use a smaller range, or more decimal places.